Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

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Contents

Plot

Fans of Pretty Little Liars have a new mystery to solve, and this time it involves a murder in the college town of Beacon Heights, where everything is not as perfect as it seems. Featuring the return of series stars Sasha Pieterse (Alison DiLaurentis) and Janel Parrish (Mona Vanderwaal), the series tells the story of a town of overachievers who are under an intense amount of pressure to succeed. When their high-stakes college environment pushes them to a breaking point, someone snaps and kills someone. As they work together to solve the murder mystery, it soon becomes clear that behind every Perfectionist is a secret, a lie – and a needed alibi. The mysterious drama, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists debuts in 2019.[5]

Cast

Main Cast

Sofia Carson as Ava Jalali: A stylish trendsetter with a big personality, Ava hopes to have her own clothing line someday. But she has an edge over her fellow fashionistas: a brilliant technological mind, which she uses to blog and code. Just don’t ask her why her parents recently fled the country — it’s her one big secret.

Sydney Park as Caitlin Park-Lewis[8][9]: The intelligent, motivated and easy-on-the-eyes daughter of two over-achieving mothers, one of whom is a United States senator, Caitlin is an expert at hiding secrets. She hopes to follow in her mother’s political footsteps — that is, if the weight of her own secrets doesn’t crush her first.

Eli Brown as Dylan Wright[10]: A prodigious cellist who used his passion for music to escape his small-minded hometown, Dylan loves his music almost as much as he loves his boyfriend, Andrew. (And even that’s up for debate.)

Kelly Rutherford as Claire Hotchkiss[11]: The matriarch of the Hotchkiss family, Claire along with her husband is the founder of Hotchkiss Industries and the respected Beacon Heights University. She believes perfection is attainable and is the person who pulls the strings behind the scenes to get what she wants.

Graeme Thomas King as Jeremy Beckett[13]: A handsome Brit with more abs than you can count with just your fingers, Jeremy is also described as “charming and witty.” (Duh, he’s British!) What’s more, he’s also an intelligent scientist working for Hotchkiss Industries.

Chris Mason as Nolan Hotchkiss[14][15]: A natural born leader, Nolan is the heir to his family’s empire. Though he puts forth the image of a golden boy, Nolan is actually a manipulator who uses his friends and family to maintain his image. Not a big fan of authority figures or the word “no,” Nolan isn’t used to losing.

Recurring Cast

Evan Bittencourt as Andrew: Dylan’s supportive and well-adjusted boyfriend of Dylan, who’s successfully navigating the world of the Perfectionists – for now.[16]

Noah Gray-Cabey as Mason: A smart and athletic fellow student at Beacon Heights University. Mason is a natural born leader who can charm his way in and out of most situations, but there is something about him that keeps people guessing.[17]

Klea Scott as Dana: The new head of security at Beacon Heights University, who is determined and perceptive almost to the point of omniscience. After recent events, she keeps Alison (Sasha Pieterse), Mona (Janel Parrish) and our Perfectionists on their toes.[18]

Trivia

The show was almost adapted twice, although, both times it was not a PLL spin-off.

The first known news of an adaptation came in 2013 before the book itself was published. The CW picked up the rights for the show and planned to air it as a, "drama series project from Alloy Entertainment and Warner Bros. TV". Once the book was released, the plans eventually fell through and the rights were out of their hands by 2014.[20]

The second time the series was almost given an order, was in 2014 when I. Marlene King acquired the rights to the show the month the book came out. ABC Family planned to release the series on their network. There was no news of the show for four years.[21]

Marlene King teased about a possible spinoff with links to Pretty Little Liars in June, saying "You know there might be some truth to that, but my hands are tied and I'm not allowed to talk about it just yet. So hopefully we will get to share some news soon!"[22]. It was soon revealed that it would be a complete merge of the universes of "Pretty Little Liars" and "The Perfectionists".

In a September 2017 Dancing With The Stars Instagram Live chat, when asked about what show is about, Sasha Pieterse said, "It's about this perfect town... called Beacon Heights, and, um, there's this really rich family that owns the town basically [...] knows everything about everyone, and, um, their daughter is the first person to get, um... the first person to die basically, as an accident or maybe not an accident in the town, and so everyone kinda freaks out."[24]. However, she does state that Marlene "can obviously change it".

It is also noted that Ava, Caitlin, and Jeremy's personalities have been altered from their book counterparts - Ava's never expressed a major interest in fashion or technology, Caitlin was the athletic girl yearning for a future in soccer while Jeremy was an average teenage boy younger than Caitlin.

When asked by a fan if "Bitchy Ali" and "Murder Queen Mona" will be a duo in the series, she confirmed.[32]

In an interview, Marlene revealed that one of the four Perfectionists introduced won't make it to the end of the pilot.[33]

A few crew members from Pretty Little Liars have signed on to be part of the spin-off.

I. Marlene King created and adapted the series. She is also an executive producer, writer, and the showrunner of the series. She was previously all of those and more on Pretty Little Liars.

Filming for the Pilot started on March 5, 2018, according to Sofia Carson in Portland, Oregon.[48]

The pilot finished filming on March 27, 2018, according to the casts' social media accounts.

After filming for the Pilot wrapped, the cast and crew all received Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists t-shirts.[49]

Sofia Carson describes the show as, "it's dramatic, it's dark, it's mysterious, it's romantic and full of secrets as the PLL world goes," as well as, "a sensation of being constantly watched as well, like there was in PLL, so there's the same essence of the story."[50]

On May 3, 2018, editing for the Pilot episode was in progress. It was being edited by I. Marlene King and Lois Blumenthal.[51]

The show was picked up to series on May 15, 2018, and was given a ten-episode order.[52]